Johnny Weir No Longer Skating Around the Gay Thing

Johnny Weir has a memoir coming out soon called Welcome to My World and savvy marketing chap that he is, he’s promoting it by leaking/selling excerpts to People magazine. The big news (or non-news) is that Weir finally, explicitly comes out as gay: “With people killing themselves and being scared into the closet, I
hope that even just one person can gain strength from my story.”

In the People article, Weir talks about his childhood when he was often mistaken for a little girl. Also, his often being called a “homo” or “faggot” by middle school students. He also mentions a clandestine affair he had with another male skater he refers to only as “Alex.”

Weir also discusses the pressure he felt from gay websites who “couldn’t figure out why I was such a jerk that I wouldn’t talk it [being gay].”

“A lot of the gays got downright angry about my silence. But pressure is the last thing that would make me want to ‘join’ a community.”

Well, we were probably one of those gay websites he refers to, and I can’t say we were angry so much as sincerely frustrated that Weir played coy for so long. It made him awfully hard to write about or appreciate. What did it say about gay visibility when someone so visibly gay seemed obstinate in refusing to own up to it? How could he be considered a role model?

Weir ends with…

“I’m not ashamed to be me. More than anyone else I know, I love my life and accept myself. What’s wrong with being unique? I am proud of everything that I am and will become.”

And at last, GLBT fans looking for out gay role models can be proud of him as well.

The full Johnny Weir article appears in the January 17th print version of People on newstands now.